On May 8, 2012, the Michigan DNR will auction mineral and oil rights to 109,000 acres of Michigan public land. This opens public lands to oil and gas drilling and the highly toxic, water-intensive practice of hydraulic fracturing, and other extractive industries.

The May 8 State of Michigan Oil and Gas Lease Auction includes state land from 23 counties with Oakland, Barry, Gladwin, counties and the UP among the biggest losers of public land and health.

Please call the Oil and Gas Lease Management Unit of the DNR at 517-373-7663 to express your concerns.

May 8 Lansing Protest

The May 8 auction will open for bidder registration at 8:00am with the auction beginning at 9:00am at Constitution Hall, 525 West Allegan, Lansing. At 7:30am many concerned Michigan residents are meeting in front of Constitutional Hall, to protest this auction.

If you are interested in this outdoor protest please call Maryann at 269-267-3278

If you are interested in making your voice heard directly in classic EF! style please call Elizabeth at 248-462-0906

If you are interested in purchasing the mineral rights in order to keep your community unpolluted please call Kathy at 248-790-6278

If you want to get involved and live in Northern and Eastern Michigan please call LuAnn at 231-547-2828

More Information

In Barry County alone, the DNR is offering 211 numbered parcels totaling over 23,400 acres, with an average size of 111 acres per offering. With a typical oil and/or gas well requiring 40 acres, the Yankee Springs Recreation area could potentially become home to hundreds of wells, and with horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, this means deep, multi-directional drilling and the injection of toxic chemicals under area wetlands, streams, lakes, and recreational land.

The DNR is offering large parcels of land in Thornapple and Irving Townships directly north and west of Middleville, as well as most of Yankee Springs and some portions of Orangeville and Rutledge Townships. Bodies of water contained in these parcels include the eastern shores of Barlow and Gun Lakes as well as all surrounding land and waters of Shaw Lake, Bassett Lake, Baker Lake, Chief Noonday Lake, Payne Lake, Williams and McDonald Lakes, Long Lake, Hall Lake, Turner Lake, Deep Lake, Otis Lake, and all connecting waterways, recreational trails, and land.

Earthquakes (Such as those caused in Ohio, due to deep injection wells where toxic fracking fluids are injected because these toxic chemicals cannot be disposed of above ground.)

The potential for toxic fracking fluids (known carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and chemicals that cause neurological damage) to leak during on-site mixing and operations, and/or from deep injection wells used to bury these toxins.